UTD national merit v. UT Austin

[user320193]

Hi guys! I was wondering if I could get some serious and immediate help on undergrad. I plan to go on the pre-med track, but I'm confused as to which college will give me the best shot. UTD has a great national merit program that includes "complete coverage of UT Dallas tuition and mandatory fees for eight semesters, a $4,000 per semester cash stipend to defray the costs of books, supplies, and other expenses, a $1,500 per semester housing stipend for students living on-campus (only applicable for University Village, University Commons, or Canyon Creek), and a one-time award of up to $6,000 for an international study abroad program." as well as automatic inclusion in College V Honors and I think first pick for classes? I also know it would be easier for me to have a higher GPA here as well.

For UT, I would be just a regular biology major in FRI (Freshman Research Initiative) and Jefferson Scholars ( a liberal arts program). I feel like UT would have better quality research and would reward you greatly as long as you put in the work! The only downside is finding research and maintaining your GPA as I heard the classes are pretty rigorous. My parents really want me to go to UT I think simply because of the prestige, but I heard undergrad ranking doesn't really matter.

Any advice is welcomed!!! Thank you : )

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[Lucca]

So this looks like a full ride at UTD + stipend and benefits vs. full cost UT Austin? Don't pass up a free ride at a good UG like UTD IMO. I went to school on a full ride and having no UG debt has been incredibly liberating. I would only advise agains the full ride at UTD if you hate it there, Dallas, and strongly believe you would be miserable there. As much as I like to rag on Dallas, it's not actually a bad place to live and I had friends from HS go to UTD who are doing just fine. Word on the street is that their premed advising is top notch.

Being a crown jewel student (which it sounds like you would be at UTD) at a public school is a very, very nice deal. You can compensate for the relative weakness in research opportunities by doing research at UTSW during the semester or the summer, or, better yet, using that study abroad money to find research at a prestigious international research institution in Europe/the UK. You can also apply out every summer to summer research programs. Those are highly competitive but there are like a billion of them and if you apply broadly you can get some great exposure to a more research intensive institution during UG. If the research bug bites you and you want to do MD/PhD or something you'll need 1 or 2 gap years to be seriously competitive unless you are a top 1% UG researcher and those can definitely be done at a more prestigious/well-resourced place like the NIH with relative ease provided you have a good CV by that stage.

If you are certain you want to do medical school, then take the money and never look back. If you are hedging on medicine and could see yourself doing business, engineering, or CS then go to UT Austin because those depts. at UT are some of the top in the country and the ROI on your UG degree will be very good.